May 12, 2015

Lose Weight Eating McDonalds! #McDOpenDoorTour

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend a McDonald's Open-Door Tour and received compensation for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

I totally have your attention now don't I?! You can lose weight while ONLY eating McDonald's! I was a little leery of it when I heard as well, but was so excited to be invited to take a behind the scenes tour of a local McDonalds, that I jumped at the chance! My toddler loves "Old McDonald's" but with rumors of pink slime and meat patties that don't grow mold after 5 years, I've been apprehensive about bringing her.

Imagine my surprise when we walk into the kitchen and see fresh eggs being cracked on the grill!

It's so cool! I had no idea-- I really thought the eggs were the frozen pre-made eggs but that was not the case! Did you know you can even get egg whites? Yum!

After working in a sit down restaurant for 5 years, I was even more excited to see the supplier of the fresh produce was the same that used to deliver to Friendly's! Those are fresh, no preservative vegetables! Even the fridge set up shows that they are totally on par with their food handling skills, following FIFO (First In, First out) and shelving guidelines!

Additionally, we were told (and saw the packaging!) about the amaing companies who supply food for McDonalds: Dannon, McCain, Tyson, General Mills-- all brands I already trust inside my house!

I was already feeling so much better about bringing my little ones to a McDonald's for a meal. There's such a stigma about fast food and how bad and unhealthy it is, but that didn't seem to be the case. All of the food was fresh and healthy!

One might even venture to say that you could lose weight while eating it? Gasp!

Enter John Cisna! Never heard of him? He was on the news a couple nights ago... google that!

He is a Science teacher from Iowa who was concerned about the results he saw in the movie Supersize Me. Of course, if the guy from Supersize Me was eating 3,000 calorie meals, he was going to gain weight! John wanted to see if it was possible to lose weight.

He got his students in on the project, using the McDonald's Meal Builder tool, and they came up with over 50 combinations of daily meals that could be consumed that were under 2,000 calories and satisfied the FDA's 15 required nutrients guidelines! Okay, well, except for salt. But he compensated for the extra salt but adding more water to his diet to flush out the excess.

A normal day of eating for John would consist of 2 egg white delight sandwiches, fruit and maple oatmeal, and milk for breakfast, a Southwest Salad with a yogurt parfait and apple slices for lunch, and a meal off the value menu-- including french fries!

He lost 37 pounds, 7 inches off his waist, and dropped his cholesterol from 249 to 170! Yikes!

Amazing, right?!

And then John said "But this was an experiment, not a diet." It was done to teach critical thinking skills, and as a teacher, I loved that aspect of it.

He wanted his students to not just believe what was told to them, but to think for themselves and to make decisions based on what they know is best.

This whole experiment proves that you make your own choices.

This is an 800 calorie breakfast but I didn't finish a single item-- only sampled!-- but even if I had, it would just mean I'd need to scale back my lunch a bit!

McDonald's does not make people fat or unhealthy; the decisions people make while ordering McDonald's, or anywhere else, are what make them unhealthy or overweight.Making conscious decisions about what we put into our bodies is important, and after seeing the quality of what McDonald's is using in their kitchens, I won't feel guilty anymore about picking up drive thru or taking the princess out to celebrate!

After visiting McDonald's and meeting John Cisna, I can can say it: I'm lovin' it.